Artificial intelligence is a combination of several, various technologies working together to allow machines the ability to detect, understand, act and learn at levels of intellect comparable to that of a human. We live in a world where artificial technology is a crucial part of everyday life. From improved healthcare to face recognition, artificial intelligence has changed society, but has this impact developed society, or has it completely dominated our lives?

AI is incorporated in numerous different forms of technology such as automation, natural language processing and self-driving cars. AI has become popular in many different markets, for example, in healthcare, business, education, law and security. However, the application of AI raises legal, ethical and security concerns. Artificial intelligence has become a rising debate as people question whether AI is replacing humans.

Artificial intelligence can improve our health and standard of living by making everyday life more convenient. It can offer accessibility for people with disabilities as well as improve workplace safety. Why sit in traffic for hours on end when a map app can navigate you around any accidents? Why note down all your passwords when all you need is to smile in order for face recognition to unlock your device? Artificial intelligence makes life more efficient, enjoyable and exciting.

AI technology is good at detail-oriented jobs, reduces the time taken to complete data-heavy tasks, delivers consistent results and is always available. AI makes many everyday tasks available to those suffering from disability, for example, transcripts for those who are deaf and hearing-impaired.

Three major causes of human accidents: stress, fatigue and illness, which are all preventable when using AI. For very risky occupations, AI robots can work alongside people or completely replace them. The use of AI reduces human error, prevents hazardous human intervention and can processes instructions faster than human capability.

Alternatively, artificial intelligence has multiple downsides. AI is expensive to produce, maintain and prepare. AI repeats and exacerbates human racism as a study shows that facial recognition is racially biased, recognising the faces of white men, meanwhile incorrectly identifying black women 35% of the time. Furthermore, AI poses dangerous privacy risks as facial recognition can be used for surveillance without the knowledge of the person being watched. AI technology was used by a group of criminals in 2020 to steal $35 million from a bank in the United Arab Emirates and attempting to steal £240,000 from an energy company in the UK. Artificial intelligence requires deep technical expertise, is limited to what it is shown and is not able to generalise from one task to another.

Rising artificial intelligence technologies are a threat to the future of life and human existence as they will harm the standard of living for many people by causing mass unemployment as robots replace people. Not only will AI threaten human autonomy, action and ability, it will amplify human effectiveness. Why are we producing machines that further destabilise the world and take possession of human life? AI is unreliable, expensive and unethical.

An aerospace engineering student stated, “Artificial intelligence is an ever-evolving industry that is becoming more prominent as we speak. Although there are many risks when handling AI, I believe, with the proper maintenance, the world can certainly develop through artificial intelligence”.

Stephen Hawking famously predicted that “Computers will overtake humans with AI within the next hundred years. When that happens, we need to make sure the computers have goals aligned with ours”.

Overall, there are many advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence. There is a limited supply of qualified workers to build AI tools, however, one could argue that instead of raising unemployment rates, AI creates jobs as many skilled individuals are needed to create and monitor AI technology. Although artificial intelligence is unlikely to replace human beings, as Stephen Hawking speculated, it will most definitely change the roles that human beings play in society.